July 14, five-day preparation is conducted by representatives of U.S. Army in Europe's (USAREUR) Joint Multinational Training Command (JMTC), Germany, for staff personnel of the Mechanised Infantry Brigade (MIB) Iron Wolf in Rukla. The training is also attended by soldiers of USAREUR's 173rd Airborne Brigade.
"The staff of the MIB Iron Wolf will be completing wide spectrum operational planning and execution during Exercise Saber Junction in Germany, and also - command a brigade-sized unit comprising six battalions for the first time in its history. This joint brigade will include units and military from more than 10 countries, therefore challenges arising from differences in experience and operational procedures are lying ahead. The ongoing preparation period is a vital measure for overcoming the challenges to be met during the training," Commander MIB Iron Wolf Colonel Raimundas Vaikšnoras said.
The preparations began with a briefing by the representatives of the JMTC on their institution; a briefing on Saber Junction 2014 followed informing the participants on the civilian environment of the operations area and the exercise scenario. The U.S. colleagues are expected to share best practices and lessons learned from previous iterations of the exercise, later points of command and control operations, logistics, indirect fire and non-kinetic operations will be addressed.
Staff personnel of USAREUR's 173rd Airborne Brigade will share their experience of deploying specialised units of the brigade for combat operations.
Exercise Saber Junction 2014 for MIB is organised by the Joint Multinational Training Command of the U.S. Army in Europe. The training event will take approximately 4 weeks (from August 24) and involve military personnel from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, the U.S.A., Croatia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden and Ukraine.
Photo credits: Captain Liutauras Mickevičius
